Hayden Christensen is not scary. He may play the man who will become one of the cruelest mass murderers in modern- day fiction –Darth Vader–the black-hooded lord of evil who massacres billions of innocent people, but in person, the skinny 21-year-old doesn’t seem scary at all.
As he meets with press at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in Northern California before “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” opens, Christensen seems acutely and cautiously aware of how the movie can catapult him into superstar status. With delicate pale features, dirty-blonde hair and soft gray-blue eyes, he has a look that has made him a toast of Young Hollywood, and though he was a relative unknown when cast in the high profile role, he recently received kudos for his portrayal of the rebellious, sexually-ambiguous son of Kevin Kline in “Life as a House.”
But now all attention is on the man who will be Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker, and after hundreds of questions about the role, Christensen has no trouble picking the most obnoxious question he continues to get. “The most obnoxious? ‘So, you’re the next Mark Hamill?’ And I’m just kind of like, ‘Yeah. Okay,’ That’s not really for me to say,” he laughs. Hamill shot to superstar status after playing Luke Skywalker in the first three “Star Wars” movies and his character is actually the son to Christensen’s Anakin. And while his “Star Wars” costar Harrison Ford (Han Solo) went on to superstardom in roles like Indiana Jones, Hamill’s career has fallen into relative obscurity and he tends to live off of being Luke Skywalker. Not having met Hamill, Christensen says he hopes to soon, and figures, “Actors are in control of their own destiny. Who knows why someone makes certain choices?”
Well-grounded with a close family –he still lives at home in Toronto with his parents–Christensen is prepared for stardom, having already seen his face on dozens of magazine covers. But fame has its drawbacks. “It definitely limits your choices when you want to go out to the convenience store and get some snack food,” he smiles. “Your face is everywhere.”
When fans finally get to see him in “Episode II,” they will get a glimpse of his dark side as he moves closer to becoming the most powerful Jedi Knight. But Christensen himself is anything but mean-spirited. “I don’t know that I necessarily care to share whatever evil lurks inside of me,” Christensen smirks. But he does like some Jedi philosophies. “I like the idea of a sort of rigidness and very defined structure that’s necessary for a Jedi in order to sort of be so in tune with the Force. It’s something that can extend as a sort of positive and productive way of life for most people, I think, having that structure, and having some sort of consistency in your life is necessary.” He acknowledges his character is a bit like a priest, unable to experience love, which is why Anakin and Padmé Amida (Natalie Portman) secretly sneak off to get married.
“The dedication and sacrifices you make are very similar, especially in terms of not really being able to experience a romantic love, a physical love – it’s something that extends both to religious figures and Jedis,” says the young actor. “I think there’s definitely a greater sense of human interaction and a building-up relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin and Padmé, and the way these relationships are able to define your character I think is something that is obviously very common in the previous trilogy.” He grew up enjoying “Star Wars,” especially when his brother, who’s eight years older than he is, sat him down and made him watch all three of the first films when they were young. But Christensen was more into “He-Man” cartoons, and the movie he loves to watch over and over is the campy adventure fantasy “The Princess Bride,” with Cary Elwes and Robin Wright.
“I remembered seeing ‘Star Wars’ as a child, and remembered how much I enjoyed the film, and how vivid the impression of its world actually was,” he says. But when the movie was re-released in theaters, he got a new opportunity to experience it. “I actually was able to enjoy it more on the big screen, and definitely became a fan then.” He incorporates some of the monotone aspect of James Earl Jones’ heavy breathing behind the mask of Darth Vader into his character of Anakin and was even instructed by Lucas to be more bratty at times, more whiny. “That’s one of the key principles of his descent to the Dark Side, but you never want to come across as just a complete brat,” Christensen says.
“I saw in Hayden an actor who could believably pull off that mix of innocence an maturity as he get seduced by the Dark Side,” creator and director Lucas says of the young actor, who he considers to be the perfect teen version of Anakin (following 9-year-old Jake Lloyd’s portrayal of the role in “Episode I – The Phantom Menace”). Christensen settled into the role, even doing some ad-libbing in a scene with Portman when they’re having a romantic dinner and he elevates a piece of fruit off her plate and cuts it for her as they chat. “He (Lucas) asked me to just improvise the story where I was just talking abut one of my Jedi experiences, so that in a sense we could escape some of the rigidity of the way people talk in the ‘Star Wars’ universe, which is not the way normal people talk, and so he wanted to show the tenderness and human emotion that was prominent in their relationship,” Christensen recalls. “Then the line about ‘aggressive negotiation’ came up two years ago and he liked it and five months ago we shot the bit in the arena where we brought the line up again.”
Because a great deal of the movie was shot against a green screen so computer-generated effects could be inserted behind the actors, Christensen didn’t interact much with the scenery or with the creatures seen in the final product. So when he finally saw the finished film, he was thrilled. “I had no idea that he was capable of creating such extreme environments,” he says, mainly of the look and feel of the planet of Naboo. But his favorite scene in the film is one he’s not in: “Where Obi-Wan walks into a room and Yoda’s training little baby Jedi, and he puts a little hologram projector onto the stand, and the whole universe comes into form in front of him, I thought was just incredible.”
When the cast did venture to some real backdrops, it was just as impressive. Switzerland’s Lake Como is the setting for the most romantic moments of the movie, and Christensen says, “Its absurd beauty makes it a place that can be used as a ‘Star Wars’ environment because it is so extreme.” Extreme is a word that also works for Christensen, whose career choices have gone the range from a recently completed hit play “This Is Our Youth.” in London with Anna Paquin (in which he plays a youth who experiments with drugs), to filming an indie with his brother Tov this summer. Those choices, along with “Life as a House” and a role in the Fox Family Channel TV series “Higher Ground,” are dramatically different than this sci-fi superhero. “I like to play a radically different character for my own fulfillment. That’s sort of the joy of acting, is getting to take on sensibilities that are very removed from your own,” he says. After he finishes working on the yet-untitled film his brother is producing, Christensen will return to Australia to film the final “Star Wars” episode next summer.
“It will be a very dark film to parallel my character’s journey. This is the telling of someone who goes sour. So I think when you look at the idea of the saga as a whole, you’ll see two characters who through minute degrees of the choices they make are led on different paths,” he says. “One is an uplifting journey, a journey filled with goodness, and one is the opposite.” The journey is well underway in “Episode II,” as Anakin is torn between his heart’s true desire and his growing responsibilities as a Jedi. If faced with the same situation, what would Christensen choose? “Well, I’m not the Chosen One so the repercussions for my actions aren’t that severe. I think I would definitely follow my heart,” he smiles. And what would that be? He smiles even wider. “Doing what I’m doing right now.”
Source: Mike Szymanski